Two more victims of a shooting rampage at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, have died of their wounds, raising the death toll to 22 in the massacre as US President Donald Trump plans a visit to the stricken community.
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The latest fatalities bring to 31 the number of people killed during the weekend in mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, that have touched off a new furore over gun violence in the US.
Patrick Crusius, 21, has been charged with a single count of capital murder in the El Paso case, court documents show, in what is likely a legal place holder to keep him in custody while investigations continue.
Authorities have cited a lengthy anti-immigrant manifesto, apparently posted online by the suspect before the Saturday morning shooting in the heavily Hispanic border city, which they said was evidence the bloodshed was racially motivated.
Eight of those killed in the attack were Mexican citizens, according to the Mexican government.
The four-page statement uploaded to 8chan, a largely unmoderated online message board often used by extremists, called the Walmart attack "a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas."
It also expressed support for a gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March.
The El Paso killings prompted 8chan founder Frederick Brennan, in an interview with the New York Times, to call for the site to be shut down. Brennan no longer has control of 8chan, which is now run from the Philippines by a US Army veteran, the Times reported.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Saturday's rampage appeared to be a hate crime and federal prosecutors called it domestic terrorism. A Texas prosecutor said the state will seek the death penalty against Crusius if he is convicted.
Trump said Americans "must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy" and blamed the internet and violent video games for fostering violence.
El Paso Mayor Dee Margo told reporters at an afternoon news conference that Trump would visit the city on Wednesday. The mayor asked that the visit amid a divisive gun control debate not be politicised.
US gun control activists say the internet and video games cannot be blamed because they are also are popular in countries where mass shootings are virtually unknown, in part because it is harder to obtain a firearm.
El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said the suspect was cooperating with investigators.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a congressional panel on July 23 that the bureau has recorded about 100 arrests of domestic terrorism suspects in the preceding nine months and that most investigations of that kind involve some form of white supremacy.
The Texas rampage was followed just 13 hours later by the mass shooting in Ohio and came a week after a man shot dead three people at a California garlic festival before taking his own life.
In Dayton, Ohio, a gunman in body armour and a mask killed nine people in less than a minute and wounded 27 others in the downtown historic district before he was shot dead by police.
Police said the El Paso suspect opened fire with a rifle on Walmart shoppers, many of them bargain-hunting for back-to-school supplies, then surrendered to officers who confronted him outside the store.
In El Paso, residents on Monday brought crosses representing each of the victims to a growing memorial site near the store.
Trump has derided asylum seekers and other immigrants coming across the US southern border as liars and criminals, prompting Democrats to accuse him of encouraging race-related hate crimes.
Australian Associated Press
